The present invention is directed to a method for providing comprehensive documentation information of complex machines and systems, in particular an injection molding machine.
Nothing in the following discussion of the state of the art is to be construed as an admission of prior art.
Documentation information of complex machines and systems is provided by a manufacturer in form of operating manuals, exploded view drawings, replacement part lists and the like, either on paper (hardcopy) or in electronic form, e.g., on a data carrier. At the time the machine/system is delivered, the manufacturer makes sure that the status of the documentation agrees with the status of the delivered machine. The customer can use the documentation from the data carrier or from the hardcopy.
Disadvantageously, the manufacturer of, for example, modularly constructed machines and systems incurs significant expenses to combine the various parts of the documentation for the individual modules to an overall documentation which corresponds exactly to the delivered machine. It is also disadvantageous that the desired documentation documents are typically provided to the end customer separate from the machine/system, so that the end customer incurs costs for acquiring the machine/system documentation. It is also disadvantageous that, for example, when a replacement part or replacement component is installed, the new components may be modified or improved, which is not illustrated in the original supplied documentation data. This frequently leads to an erroneous fault analysis during maintenance of the machine/system.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved comprehensive documentation information in a complex machine/system, in particular an injection molding machine to obviate prior art shortcomings